Industry, education partner in Opportunity Lincoln

An effort dubbed Opportunity Lincoln is working to create a partnership between local industries and schools in the community.

Initiated by the Fayetteville/Lincoln County Industrial Development Board and the Fayetteville/Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, industry and education representatives met for the second Opportunity Lincoln gathering Thursday at the Sundquist Center on the campus of the Motlow Fayetteville Center.

“Ultimately, we hope to help groom our workforce,” said Elaine Middleton, executive director of the FLCIDB during a recent meeting, describing how the program helps identify the needs of local industries while working with schools to help fulfill those needs.

Four objectives have been set in place initially. Among them, a career day at local high schools to be held in conjunction with college day, an event during which industries will set up booths, offer information about their facilities and recruit future employees. Secondly, IDB plans to host plant tours with students from the Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

“We want students to be able to see what opportunities are available to them,” Middleton continued, going on to cite another aspect of Opportunity Lincoln, bringing human resource managers from local industries together with school guidance counselors and other education officials. “Hopefully, this will demonstrate to students that there is another path they can follow.”

And finally, the effort will see students from each of the local high schools participate in mock interviews, so they can learn more about the qualities and skill sets sought by industries. The interviews would actually be scheduled as appointments by youths with industry HR representatives.

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